Wedding Celebration

A wedding celebration will really look chic if it is given a certain color scheme. The leaders of today's weddings are gold, silver, pink and white. They should be used to compose compositions of flowers, decoration of the hall and a festive table where the wedding celebration will take place and, of course, invitations and dresses.

If you hold a wedding banquet in the evening, you can arrange the tables with small floating candles that are placed in the center of each table, as tall candles can make it difficult for guests who are in relation to each other to communicate across the table. Instead of a number, as is customary, give each table names. For example, this name could be the name of the main components of your bouquet flowers or the name of memorable places you visited together. Each place can be designated, for example, by a card with the name of a guest fixed on a painted apple, or by the same card on a small chocolate heart. This is all quite easily remembered by the guests and, plus to everything, contributes its share of romance to the wedding celebration.

A few weeks before the wedding, try to send out invitations that can be bought at the post office or in a specialty store, ordered at a wedding agency, or made by you yourself. Of course, the last option will be more interesting. But in any case, do not forget to prepare a few spare cards, just in case. Suddenly, when filling in one of them you make a mistake or at the last moment decide to invite someone else.

For professional shooting of your wedding do not be lazy to invite an experienced photographer who specializes specifically in wedding celebrations. After all, no amateur pictures can not be compared with high-quality professional photos in your wedding album.

In advance, make sure that at the banquet part of the wedding celebration on some separate table there is an original decorated book in which every guest can write their congratulations and wishes to the newlyweds and, perhaps, share their impressions of the wedding. An alternative to such a book can be reviews of guests present directly in front of the lens of a video camera.

And, finally, with regard to tips in terms of the menu for a wedding celebration , you should not splurge on various expensive desserts, because they may well be the wedding cake . Now confectioners use a large number of different flavor combinations of fruits, cream, liqueurs and chocolate - all you have to do is discuss it with the masters of your craft, and your wedding party will be the most exquisite sweetness for everyone present!

Mistakes when organizing a wedding

We have already said that organizing a wedding is rather troublesome and delicate , although it does not at all mean that a spoiled wedding foreshadows the same married life. In this article we will try to give examples of the most common mistakes most often made by newlyweds in organizing a wedding celebration, as well as during the wedding itself.

So, the wedding is the main day and an unforgettable holiday for the bride and groom, but including the wedding is a kind of official reception, most often at which relatives of the newlyweds gather, who do not have the habit of regularly meeting within their families. Many of them see their family members for the first time from the opposite side. Young people at the gala event face the hard work of taking part in a large number of current rituals, accepting congratulations personally from each person present ... Newlyweds should set themselves up for this in advance and also behave accordingly. A bride in a soiled dress or a very drunk bridegroom is far from an attractive picture, so she should not in any case remain in the memory of invited guests.

The next mistake is that young people often refuse toastmasters on the pretext that only their own will attend the wedding. And who really knows when parents of newlyweds should give a speech? Who will tell guests when to fill a glass, when to dance? The same kind of mistakes include the refusal of a professional photographer or cameraman, because many of those invited have their own digital cameras. It is better to invite a professional if you want to see something other than the walls in the wedding album and something other than the legs in the video.

The mistake of the bride most often lies in her confidence that her friend will help to make up and put her hair on. Of course, this is true if the girlfriend is a professional hairdresser and makeup artist . But otherwise do not expose your appearance to undue risk. After all, you will be watched all around for a whole day, and you just have to be at your best.

Do not buy alcohol at cheap market places, if you do not want guests to suffer after a wedding all week with alcohol poisoning and only this will remember your wedding. This is also an important point when organizing a wedding.

In drawing up the wedding menu , remember that the wedding come not to eat. And, if your plans do not include the sleep of guests in festive salads, try to pay special attention to snacks.

And the last of the most common mistakes - to save on organizing a wedding, do it yourself. Be sure that by the beginning of the celebration you can be exhausted to such an extent that it is unlikely you will be before the holiday. So it is better to save a certain amount for companies engaged in organizing weddings. In any case, no matter how much you pay for such services, peace of mind and good mood, which you need on your wedding day, cost much more!

How to plan a wedding

Before you plan your wedding, mentally prepare yourself for the fact that you will have to overcome many obstacles in connection with its preparation. After all, in fact, wedding efforts do not end with one filing an application to the registry office. The closer the wedding day, the more tense the situation becomes, as you have to do a lot and not forget anything. You should make sure that the most significant day in the life of the newlyweds does not turn into a nightmare for them. The best time to prepare a wedding is three months, but if you plan it in summer, feel free to start preparing in another six months.

How to plan a wedding if you have no experience in this business? To begin, the organization of the wedding should begin with the preparation of expenses, the main of which are the banquet, the costumes of the bride and groom , wedding photo and video, wedding procession ), wedding rings and a wedding trip. The list is usually supplemented as necessary, respectively, the amount is also increased.

Prices for wedding services related to the wedding, directly depend on the date of the planned celebration. The cost of celebrating a wedding in May is several times less than, for example, in August or September. Naturally, the quality of services provided will be higher. It is better not to order video filming from amateurs, since you can get a wave not exactly what you wanted. At this time there is a stir in the wedding salons, so choosing an outfit will be hard enough, and by resorting to tailoring a dress to order, you can go broke.

And how to plan a wedding, if after all you decided to get married in a wedding rush, but you do not have enough money? In this case, postpone the wedding day on Thursday or Friday. Then you will save a lot and at the same time organize a wonderful holiday. And if, nevertheless, you decide to celebrate the wedding on Saturday, start planning everything as soon as possible.

To begin, accurately determine the date of the wedding and the place where the marriage will be registered. Approximately one month before the solemn day, apply to the registry office. In the midst of weddings, many who wish to sign off spend the night at the registry office in the literal sense of the word, in order to take a convenient time for registration. Otherwise, the painting will be assigned to you early in the morning (at about 9.30) or just before the closing of the registry office (at about 16.30).

Take a very responsible attitude to the choice of venue for the celebration. Try to order a cafe or restaurant about three months before the wedding, and do not forget to contribute part of the funds so that this place will be 100% yours. The start time of the holiday and the menu for the wedding feast are usually negotiated in about a week. The venue of the celebration depends directly on the number of guests and, of course, on the amount that you can spend on a festive meal.

How to plan a wedding next?
The next step in the preparation for the solemn day should be preceded by a choice, whether you order the organization of a holiday at the agency or will do everything on your own. If you decide to choose an agency, keep in mind that you will have to pay a certain amount of money for their services, but you can fully rely on them. If you decide to do everything yourself, be prepared for the loss of a significant amount of time, but for that and to save a sufficient amount. Start by looking for a host for a wedding , photographer, and video operator. Then think about the nuances associated with decorating the wedding procession.and the hall in which the celebration will take place. Approximately one month before the wedding, send out invitations to the guests, and in a few days, call everyone and ask who can come and who for some reason does not work.

Following the above tips on how to plan a wedding, you will not miss anything, and you will do everything in time, and on the solemn wedding day you will only have to be the most beautiful and cheerful, glow with sincere love and shine with endless happiness.

There are all sorts of problems when organizing a wedding, about what they are, after all, are in the article: "Errors in organizing a wedding . "

How to hold a wedding?

A wedding can be held in different ways: to limit the traditional version of a wedding with engagement, wedding, bride price and other rites, or put a ring on top of the Egyptian pyramid to your bride, marry high in the sky, hovering in a balloon, inviting God-sun to witnesses, creating unforgettable romantic atmosphere. Although the whole wedding ceremony is saturated with romance, however, not everyone can afford this romance as a style of holding, and such wedding arrangements will not always have an adequate response from those around them. The holding of a modern wedding is a series of established customs and traditions , the stage of human life, which will mark the transition to a new, more responsible stage.

So why should we start the wedding? Even in Soviet times, there was a saying: "Without a piece of paper you are a bug, and with a piece of paper - a man." And, in fact, the official event is the wedding that makes the regulatory framework. And therefore we do everything in order:

1. Apply to the registry office and at the same time choose the most suitable day for registration

2. Looking for a knowledgeable person (lawyer) who would help to draw up a wedding contract.

Well, the first preliminary step in organizing the wedding is completed, now it’s worth thinking about the following things: the appearance of the bride and groom and the general entourage; It is important to compile a list of guests that you intend to invite to your wedding.

So, the appearance and entourage . Here you can not do without the services of professionals. On the wedding day, the bride and groom in the spotlight. It is advisable to pre-visit a makeup artist, or at least enroll to a good hairdresser, think in advance all the details of wedding dresses and accessories. Therefore, visiting specialized salons, where experienced consultants will help you to choose a suit for the groom and the bride's dress, is of particular importance. And the choice of wedding rings in general can turn into a small holiday. How I would like to find something special, intended only for him and only for her among the diverse range. You may have to visit more than one jewelry store.

Finally, rent a decent hall for a wedding banquet, hire a motorcade that will deliver the newlyweds there in all its glory. Rich external entourage will allow you to hold a wedding truly festive and make the celebration unforgettable.

On the preparation for the wedding: the choice of attire, the hall and the wedding procession should take care, at least two months before the wedding.

Now about the organization of the celebration. It is necessary to send invitations to all guests at least a couple of weeks in advance. You can purchase invitation cards at numerous retail outlets, but custom-printed at the printing house and invitations selected according to your taste indicate the level of the inviting party.

An experienced master of ceremonies who can create a festive mood, smooth out sharp corners and artistically conduct a concert program is a real find! In the role of the lead wedding is best to hire a professional actor, it is desirable to use the services of a reputable company or recommendations of friends.

Do not forget about the photo and video of your wedding celebration. To do this, you should hire a professional, because nothing will make the memory of the wedding held even more colorful as good as high-quality photos and movies.

About a week before the wedding, you need to take care of the wedding cake and wedding bouquet - this is a tradition!

And, of course, it is impossible to have a beautiful wedding without a specific script. It is advisable to paint the wedding program carefully, taking into account the sequence and nature of the events held. Here is a rough wedding plan:

• Registry office
• Wedding
• Wedding Restaurant
• Bride price
• stroll
• Buffet table
• Inviting guests to a restaurant
• Show program, dance

Each item should take a certain amount of time, rationally think through all the stages of the future celebration, so that the wedding held then does not knock you out of your life rut.

Well, in conclusion, I would like to note that there is no universal wedding plan. This article is more a set of guidelines, not an exact instruction. There are many celebrations and happy events in the world, but only a wedding is a special holiday, and nothing should prevent you from arranging your own wedding so that the memories of it remain in your memory the happiest and happiest forever. May your wedding, the beginning of a new life, become bright, unforgettable and beautiful! And she will become like the Gate that opens the way to Paradise!

The art of organizing a wedding

A wedding is a unique celebration, and the organization of a wedding, one might say, jewelry work, that is, art. Thinking about the wedding, you first need to decide who exactly will be involved in the wedding organization . If you cannot take all the tasks into your own hands, entrust the work of the professional studio of holidays - and you will receive a guarantee of uniqueness, originality and unforgettable impressions of the holiday celebration.

Any wedding is a unique event for two lovers, as well as invited guests. The wedding celebration turns into an elegant theatrical act, in which everyone will find their place. During the organization of the wedding not only the rites of the past are observed , but also the traditions of the future are created.

Since the wedding day is a unique holiday, and the organization of a wedding is work that requires skill, whatever style you prefer (be it classic or modern), with the help of your imagination and professionalism of the chosen studio you can create a real masterpiece. Such a studio can create a script exclusively for you, since it will be one of the next steps to an impeccable reputation, as well as give it an honorable responsibility. In the studios, exclusively experienced specialists are engaged in conducting and organizing weddings.

In order for the most significant day in your life to go smoothly and without any unpleasant surprises, you need to paint it in time and think over in advance all the details of the wedding . But this does not mean at all that it is necessary to unconditionally follow the wedding scenario and withstand planned events with an accuracy of up to one minute. Be sure to leave room for improvisation. The main thing for you is to remember this momentous day with cheerful smiles, a joyful feast and a benevolent atmosphere, and not nervous vanity and endless tension.

Traditional stages of a wedding celebration

Each wedding contains something unique and unique. If you are not a professional organizer of holidays, then you should not hold a wedding according to some kind of imaginary template. We offer you a traditional script plan, according to which many wonderful weddings were played.

The traditional wedding scenario can be divided into several important stages, each of which, in fact, represents a mini-celebration. The first stage of the holiday is the bride price.

The bride ransom rite is not so much an ancient tradition as an echo of the ancient way of life - when brave and warlike men set off on a campaign for prey. Often, after a trip as a trophy, someone could grab or win a beautiful girl from a foreign tribe.

According to the traditional wedding scenario, the future bridegroom with his friends (fighters-colleagues) comes to the bride to "redeem" her. The family is “sold” by her relatives and friends, who often create the most diverse barriers to the bridegroom's way - jokes, contests, changing the bride and much more. What only at this stage of the traditional wedding scenario did not have to pay the future husband as a ransom - and candy, and flowers, and even money!

According to the traditional wedding scenario, the bride and groom travel in different cars, moreover, the groom's car arrives earlier. The musical accompaniment can be coordinated in advance, and some other contemporary music can be added to the banal March of Mendelssohn.

Further, the scenario is followed by a walk and a wedding. These two stages have one common feature: in spite of the fact that they are part of the traditional wedding scenario - in recent times, many young couples have been without them.

The wedding is a beautiful and very solemn Christian ceremony, declaring the unity of two hearts in the temple in the face of God.

Walk - an important stage of the wedding celebration. After marriage registration, the newlyweds can go to the most beautiful places in the city and create wonderful material for photo and video recordings, according to which then it will be possible to restore this wonderful time for a long time.

Another good idea will fit into the script of the walk next rite - to drink at the beginning of family life. If the fragments are large, then a young couple will be the first to have a boy, and if small pieces, then a girl.

Next, according to the traditional wedding scenario, there should be a feast , before the start of which the young are sprinkled with sweets, coins and rice, so that their life is sweet, rich and fruitful. Even before the feast, the young are greeted with bread and salt, while it is believed that the young who bite off a larger piece of the loaf will be the main thing in the newly-made family.

The feast is usually held in the wedding hall or tent, which is decorated in every possible way: flowers, balloons, etc.

Toasting is served during the banquet. The first to make a toast is either the guest of honor or the father of the bride. Further, the feast itself begins, where humorous squabbles, conversations and food intake alternate with cries of “Bitter!”.

At the very end of the holiday, the guests leave, and the newlyweds return home. According to the traditional wedding scenario, the bridegroom brings the bride in her arms over the threshold of the house so that her evil spirits do not touch her. There is also such a ritual: they put a locked lock with a discarded key under the threshold - in order for the marriage to be long and reliable.

In conclusion, I would just like to note the presence at the wedding of the lead or toastmaster. By tradition, the leader is chosen from the guests, but hardly anyone of them can compare with a real professional in their field!

Wedding Manager - the most responsible person at the wedding!

Wedding is a holiday primarily for the bride and groom, this is the solemn birthday of their new family. Often it turns out that the wedding becomes a holiday for witnesses, parents, friends, guests, but not for the newlyweds. For them, the wedding becomes a test, a job, or an exam where all pre-wedding preparations are checked. Let's try to look at the everyday life of the bride and groom on the eve of the wedding. Why, there is the day before, it is worth seeing much earlier, because the preparation begins several months before the solemn date. In various articles and forums you can easily find a calendar of preparations for the wedding. See how many points there are. The plan itself rarely fits on one sheet. Usually - this is a significant list. So the solution to all questions and points of the plan falls on the shoulders of the bride and groom. Or not? On the shoulders of mom and girlfriend? Risky, and the risk is unjustified.

But after all, mother once was also a bride and was able to organize everything herself - you will say. Yes, it's true. However, a wedding today and a wedding that took place 20 years ago are two completely different things. Modern wedding is an impressive event, which is made for you by a sufficiently large number of specialists, and all these people need to be organized among themselves, to guide and monitor the performance of duties. That is why often newlyweds take a holiday agency as assistants. In addition, the wedding "overgrown" with various new traditions and rituals, many of which came to us from Western countries. And this means that the preparation for the wedding has become much more complicated, and now it takes twice as long.

So that, nevertheless, the preparation for the wedding does not exhaust you long before the day of marriage, ask the wedding manager in our country for help to call the wedding manager . Wedding Manager- This is primarily an assistant and adviser. By virtue of his experience and personal connections, he will find the answers to any of your questions, help you figure out the sea of ​​wedding offers, eliminate all unnecessary. Besides the fact that the wedding manager together with you and for you will be engaged in the preparation and organization, he will accompany you and your guests throughout the wedding day. Only the one who has already married or married, represents how many current issues have to be resolved that day. Who will answer them, who will take care of every little thing? Bride? In the morning, the bride takes care of herself and certainly should not run and check which machine they put in sandwiches or how many balls they bought for ransom. Yes, and during the day let her enjoy her feminine happiness. Let all questions online solvesyour wedding manager . In addition, all the guests know him and will contact him for any reason, and will not "pull" the young ones. There will be less amateur performances - a more organized celebration will take place. Let your wedding manager keep the phone open, he will know where, who, when and what he does, let him lead the process as a conductor. After all, listening to a symphony orchestra, you do not think about whether the cello or viola has played, you just enjoy the music. And here you just have to enjoy your wedding day.

7 Tips to have Perfect Wedding Photos

Everything about wedding needs proper planning. From designing the wedding cards to choosing the right venue, you need to be very considerate throughout. When you have worked for something so hard, reliving the memories of the day through photographs and videos is pure bliss. But then again you need proper planning for capturing these memories. You can also use these memories as beautiful handmade gifts to be the bestowed to your loved ones. In simple terms we are talking about you need proper planning to have perfect wedding photos. Here we are discussing some tips that will help you in getting the best wedding photos:

Make sure the photographers and the videographers are to be from the same company. There are many reasons in support of it as it will ensure
Better accountability with the shared incentives
They will share better communication along with workflow
They also share the common vision and the style
You don’t have to hustle for contacting different contractors and admin for your photography and videography packages.       
Also if you are availing both the packages, you can get good discounts on both.
Be very particular when it comes to selecting the right photographer. Only with the right photographer, you are all ensured to have a hassle-free wedding shoot. From wedding planner to designer of Indian wedding cards, from caterers to other vendors, when you’re so specific with hiring them, do the same for your wedding photographer as well. Check out their portfolio and the reviews and            ratings as well. Take your time in checking everything and then only     proceed with hiring them.     
The next thing is to have a planned timeline for your wedding day which you can easily organise with your wedding planners. Everything should be organised for that timeline. From your make-up to reception to photo session, make sure everything should start and end within that stipulated time. this also gives you the time for different photo sessions like for first look, for couple’s photos, for bridal party photos and more.
Another thing you can do is to minimize the number of photo shoot locations. This ensures that you have maximum photo time and it is not wasted on travelling from one location to another. You can hire the best photographer as they can come out with some creative ideas even in a non-fancy place. Trust their creativity for this situation. 
Another thing you can do is to have the toss items an active part of your wedding photos. Paper planes, confetti, flower petals, the list goes on and on. These things add their own charms and extra touch to your             wedding photos. With genuine smiles, these pictures depict pure bliss and excitement along with waves of laughter.       
If you are looking for one photo that you want to have and you can cherish forever is the ‘first look photo”. With all that wedding jitters and anticipation, the moment when you see each other for the first time can’t be explained in words. This moment when captured, forms to be one of the most memorable photos of your whole wedding album.                       
Make sure you schedule some of the couple photos with the best lighting and amidst    the scenic view. An hour or a half before the sunset gives you the beautiful backdrop for awe-inspiring wedding photographs.
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Tips To Hire Best Wedding Planners

Hiring a wedding planner is the big decision which should be carefully taken, especially for those who are doing it first time and if you are a budding professional and about to start a business in this field, it is better to read this article. Although it takes a lot of efforts but on the same hand, it makes our work easier and gives the opportunity to enjoy the entire wedding without being stressed upon the drama of caterers or fixing price of wedding venue or picking up the dreamy lehanga on the time.

If you too are thinking to hire wedding planners, here are some crucial things by assignment help in Australia which you should remember. Let’s have a look:

Conduct Deep Research: Before hiring any of the wedding planners and making their final list, it is good if we conduct thorough research of best wedding planners online and visit their sites. It will not only help us in narrowing down our list but also guide us in choosing the best one. Just check their previous works and other stuff such as colors, decoration or theme etc. You can also go to the pictures of their work on sites and read client’s testimonials as well. Check their price also as budget is an important factor.

Check Experience: After the conducted research, we should go for those planners who contain the sufficient experience in this field and have been providing their services with 100% customer satisfaction. Just note down their names on the list. You can also choose the wedding planners on the basis of types of wedding they have done etc. It is the fact that the more experienced they are, the more we will be stress and tension free.

Fix Meeting With Your Finalists: Now we have a final list of efficient wedding planners in our hand and the next step would be to call them for a face to face meeting. Here, you can ask them about their portfolio and some previous work as well as all our doubts about wedding decoration and budget etc.  You can also carry magazine or your Pinterest boards in order to make them aware about your requirements and budgets. You should also decide the way of communication and their team’s expertise in this area.

Set the Budget: If you are satisfied with various features and facilities going to be provided by wedding planners, you can finally set the budget. Just keep the best prices and remember one thing which is that they have relationships with vendors so you can also ask for giving some discounts and best deals.

Choose Theme And Customized Designing: Some wedding planners often follow a certain theme but we can ask for a customized theme for wedding. Many of the wedding planners are professionals and experts in designing amazing themes for wedding in reasonable charges. By hiring these kinds of wedding planners, we can avail multiple benefits.

Online assignment help Australia says that the task of hiring an efficient wedding planner is difficult for the beginners but on the same side, it makes us easy for us to manage all other things in desired way. They are experts in this field so we can expect the best of them.

Made in Heaven’ offers a groundbreaking look behind big fat Indian weddings

South Asians, it can easily be argued, are global leaders of the wedding industrial complex. Winter marks the height of the region’s annual wedding season. As temperatures cool, closets swell, and Technicolor tents unfurl. With the booming ranks of millionaires and billionaires across India, these spectacles have grown grander than ever. For evidence, look no further than Beyoncé’s private concert in Rajasthan in December for the nuptials of Isha Ambani, the daughter of the richest man in India.

For the unfortunate masses whose diamond-encrusted invitations to this year’s wedding season were somehow lost in the mail, there’s Amazon Prime’s new series, “Made in Heaven,” a groundbreaking Indian drama made for global audiences.

“Made in Heaven” is about two wedding planners serving New Delhi’s elite and all their wedding spectacle needs. It’s Amazon Prime’s fourth original series for the Indian market, and in the four weeks since its release, the show has morphed into a bona fide cultural phenomenon among South Asians at home and abroad. The cast is stylish, the colors are exquisite, and the weddings themselves are nothing short of cinematic extravaganzas

The series, delivered in a blend of English and subtitled Hindi, has already launched countless think-pieces and earned rave reviews from Indian critics. While seducing audiences with the undeniable exuberance of the parties, it reveals the broken and vulnerable men and women hiding behind all the gilded ensembles. It dares to look inside modern India’s many closets, offering a piercing insider’s portrait of a society very few journalistic books or articles on “new India” can capture.

“Made in Heaven” is set in New Delhi, where the affluent and the politically connected expect nothing short of tulips flown in from Amsterdam and the finest Bordeaux wines for their grooms and brides. While the show offers the irresistible allure of that glamorous world, there’s a bait-and-switch midway through: The featured wedding in each episode is seen through the eyes of two central characters, wedding planner Karan Mehra (Arjun Mathur) and his business partner, Tara Khanna (Sobhita Dhulipala).

Karan is an openly gay man in a society that still largely despises his orientation, and Tara is an unhappily married pillar of the Delhi elite. While Karan leads negotiations with their clients in what remains a largely patriarchal culture, Tara is often looking out at her wedding designs quietly, hidden behind her designer sunglasses and severely tailored dresses. In an elegant series of flashbacks, the backstories of Karan and Tara are revealed, and it becomes clear the show is more interested in using the weddings to explore these characters than indulge in breezy wish-fulfillment entertainment.

[India has changed a lot in 70 years. But arranged marriage remains the norm.]


The show is set against the backdrop of the campaign to decriminalize homosexuality in India, and the writers explore the self-hatred and homophobia that drives Karan’s seething rage and loneliness. Tara has arrived at her perch among Delhi’s upper class through marriage and deception, leaving her lower-middle-class family far behind as she’s stuck in a perpetual state of impostor syndrome and buried shame. Tara gazes upon the emptiness that’s now her reality. At various junctures across the nine episodes, both Karan and Tara let their masks slip and reveal the pain they’re concealing from their clients and themselves.

The show was created and mostly made by a team of female filmmakers. The female and queer gaze are at the heart of what makes the show so daring and revelatory. It is a provocative exploration of gender, marriage and love in a society still wrestling with how to blend patriarchal traditions with modern urban life. Tara and Karan often leave their client meetings in a state of confusion, left to plan spectacular receptions while grappling with alignments that are defined by dowries, dishonesty and manipulative parents who use their daughters as bargaining chips for business deals and political alliances.

By centering its story on two friends who are not romantically involved but proudly queer and unapologetically feminist, the show is a far-cry from Bollywood’s fairy-tale romances. It’s ultimately a series about reconnecting with oneself, rather than living by society’s expectations of what happiness looks like.

Fortunately, the narrative arcs also make for binge-worthy television.

Streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime recognize the sheer scale of the Indian digital market, and the insatiable appetite for storytelling in the movie-mad land of Bollywood. “Made in Heaven” succeeds at marrying the polish, bravado and experimental nature of the “golden age of television” with Indian stories. For now, such productions are still operating outside the purview of the conservative and unpredictable Indian censor board, which would never allow the explicit gay sex, frank language and politics of “Made in Heaven” to pass so easily through its tentacles.

[‘Crazy Rich Asians’ is an escapist rom-com delight. It’s also a lot more than that.]

The real gift for viewers of in-house productions from Netflix and Amazon Prime is how they can be released and accessed around the world. These shows can be binged in high definition at the same time in New Delhi and Washington, D.C., marking a welcome “diversifying” of what’s on offer to Western audiences. Ongoing debates over representation in the United States have centered on seeing brown, black and queer faces in existing American genres. To now have access to stories from elsewhere as distinctive, well-told and relatable as those featured in “Made in Heaven” hints at the sheer possibilities of streaming’s multicultural — and global — age.

7 ways to Keep the Stress out of Wedding Planning

You have said yes to your significant other and now the fun begins. Wedding planning can be a very stressful event. In fact, it can seem like a full time job. Here are seven tips for you to help keep your wedding planning stress free. 1.Organize guests This one you do not want to leave

You have said yes to your significant other and now the fun begins. Wedding planning can be a very stressful event. In fact, it can seem like a full time job. Here are seven tips for you to help keep your wedding planning stress free.

1.Organize guests
This one you do not want to leave until the last minute. You should sit down with your partner and brainstorm about who you would want to invite to your wedding. List everyone possible. It is easier to cut down on the size and you are not likely to forget anyone. Once you have that list, think about who you really want at your wedding. You may have relatives and friends you feel obliged to invite. That is fine as long as you include your choice guests also. Make an index card with your guests names and addresses. This will serve as a place to write RSVP information and gift information. Once the wedding is over you will have a small box with everything you need for your thank you notes.

2. Venue
If you have a particular venue in mind book it in advance. If you are not set on your venue take the time to shop around and see what they have to offer. Some might give discounts per number of guests or they may not charge as much if you do not serve alcohol. Take you time and ask any question that you might think of. You can never ask a venue too many questions.

3. Wedding planner
If things get too overwhelming you should consider hiring a wedding planner, even if it just to get you started and organized. Most wedding planners are willing to be paid for a certain amount of time. You can hire them for the first month and then take over whenever you feel ready. If you are coasting along okay and then hit a bump closer to the wedding you can hire an end planner to make sure everything goes off without a hitch.

4. RSVP
Number your index cards with the names and addresses on them and then put a small corresponding number on the back of your RSVP’s. That will help you keep your responses in order. If Uncle Jim wants to add an extra person you will know right away and be ready to plan for that.

5. Take some dance lessons
Learn how to dance for your wedding and you will wow your guests as your partner spins you around on the floor for your first dance. You will not look like you have two left feet and you will have the confidence to dance the night away. During those lessons you should try and wear the shoes you will be wearing during the reception. It will help break them in and you will dance more confidently in them.

6. Food
Speaking of Uncle Jim, when you plan the amount of food for your wedding you should add five extra meals or five extra guests to the final count. That way the plus twos you were not expecting will not be as much of a problem. Also a buffet may help with extra people or ones that have a larger appetite. Just add a few extra numbers to your guest list and it will cover the food.

7. Relax
Remember, this is your day. This is the day you will celebrate for the rest of your life. You will have things go wrong, but they will not be as important as what is going right. You should relax and take this time in. This is your day so enjoy it and let everything else go. Happiness is what you are aiming for. That will be easy if you just let the little things go.

Seychelles Tourism Board Chief Executive sits on Tourism Panel at the sixth Annual Destination Wedding Planners Congress in Dubai

Seychelles was bestowed with high honours as the destination was represented at the Tourism Panel at the Destination Wedding Planners (DWP) Congress from March 27 to 29 2019, held in Dubai’s iconic five-star hotel and luxury resort, Atlantis the Palm.

The Seychelles delegation at the DWP event comprised of The Seychelles Tourism Board (STB) Chief Executive, Mrs. Sherin Francis and STB representative in Dubai, Ahmed Fathallah.

The STB Chief Executive who was present at the event as a destination speaker represented on the Tourism Panel, which was moderated by Conde Nast Traveller Editor-in-Chief in UAE Rhea Saran.



The panel also comprised of the Carlotta Ferrari, Director at the Destination Florence Convention and Visitors Bureau; Srisuda Wanapinyosak, Deputy Governor for the Tourism Authority in Thailand and Assistant Vice President for Dubai Tourism, Steen Jakobsen.

The discussions focused on the role of tourism boards in promoting destination weddings, collaboration with local suppliers and partners as well as the enhancement of the wedding industry in every destination.

During her intervention, Mrs. Francis reflected on the tourism board’s standpoint of the destination and its marketing in relations to Seychelles as a wedding and honeymoon destination. Presenting the archipelago as an ideal location to create perfect memories for occasions like wedding, honeymoons, anniversaries or impromptu romantic breaks.




“Seychelles is one place where beauty and year-round tropical warmth ensure that love is always in the air. For the last few decades, our clientele for weddings and honeymoon has been predominantly Europeans specially British, French, German and Italian. It has been a pleasure to note that recently there has been an expansion in our clientele and a shift in trends. We have noted wedding requests from the Americans, from India, and China. As a tourism board, we endeavor to remain one of the top destinations that one would think of to create special memories,” said Chief Executive Sherin Francis.

“Couples and honeymooners remain to be the top segment for getaways bound to Seychelles from the GCC market for the past year.

Thanks to the destination’s naturally romantic and unspoilt surroundings of pristine beaches, calm waters and year-round sunshine, the Seychelles truly offers the perfect location for a truly luxurious wedding or honeymoon destination. The Seychelles is not only well-worth a holiday, but are also the ideal destination for a wedding,” said Fathallah.

It is apparent that Seychelles remain to be a natural backdrop for weddings and honeymoons as the destination evokes romance.

Surrounded by granite outcrops, cloud-white sand and azure waters, this luxurious archipelago offers both romance and adventure for a wedding day. It is deliciously remote; brimming with picture perfect beaches and is quite simply a taste of paradise.

The DWP event is a premium business-to-business networking event and has cemented its position as one the Best Congress in the World for promoting Destination Wedding Tourism.
The DWP Congress industry organized by Dubai based QnA Global is a luxury invitation-only business platform that brings together more than 500 destination wedding specialists from over 70 countries under one roof.

DWTC signs MoU with India's leading destination wedding planning company Wedding Design Company (WDC)

Partnership facilitated by Raging Tiger Events to strengthen Dubai's position as a preferred destination for Indian weddings, and offer international wedding destinations to UAE residents

Dubai, United Arab Emirates: Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Raging Tiger Events, the exclusive representative of Wedding Design Company (WDC), India’s leading destination wedding planning company. This partnership, enabled through DXB Live, the experiential arm of DWTC, is set to promote Dubai as the preferred wedding destination for Indian weddings, and give UAE residents easier access to their dream wedding at international destinations of their choice.

Launched over 15 years ago, Wedding Design Company is one of India’s most renowned wedding planners, and is known to organise high-profile marriage ceremonies for the who’s who of Bollywood and the business industry, featuring exclusive guest lists. This includes the recently orchestrated nuptials of India’s most illustrated business moguls, the Ambani family, as well as Bollywood celebrities Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh at Lake Como, Italy.

Vandana Mohan, Founder and Owner of Wedding Design Company said: “WDC was conceived out of a desire to inspire people to live out their fantasy by creating dream weddings. We have decades of experience of organising customised weddings in exotic locations ranging from Florence, St. Moritz and Ibiza to ancient palaces and forts in India. Dubai is already a popular wedding destination and we want to raise its profile by making it the most preferred wedding destination for Indians, whether they live in India, the UAE or elsewhere.”


“We believe that combining our experience with the international expertise, in-depth local knowledge, and vast network of DXB Live and Raging Tiger Events, will help us to achieve our goal. We also hope to share our knowledge and experience of great wedding destinations across the globe with UAE residents, and we would love to design weddings for DXB Live’s discerning Emirati clients,” said Mohan.

Khalid Al Hammadi, Senior Vice President – DXB Live, DWTC said: “DWTC has a strong heritage of hosting bespoke weddings of all scale and sizes. In addition to offering flexible event space that can host largescale celebrations or intimate gatherings, we also have the in-house capability to handle every aspect of the event from catering multiple cuisines to creating extraordinary set-ups. We look forward to combining our expertise with WDC to tap into the big Indian wedding market, both in the UAE and internationally, creating unforgettable memories for our clients.”

Yogesh Mehta, Chairman of Raging Tiger Events Co. said: “We are proud to be the exclusive UAE representative of one of the best wedding planning companies in India, and very happy to forge this partnership with one of the most experienced event organisers in the UAE’’.

Aziz Merchant, Director of Raging Tiger Events Co., and the architect of this alliance added: “Bringing together the unmatched organisational and creative expertise of these companies will enable us to explore the full potential of the excellent infrastructure, facilities, and unique locations available in Dubai and the UAE, and help us create the most memorable weddings in Dubai, as well as 25 locations around the globe that WDC specializes in for local and international clients.”

About Wedding Design Company (WDC)

Known for destination weddings across Europe and India, WDC’s signature style of personalized weddings have made them trendsetters in the wedding industry. The fusion of fabric, flowers and different crafts and technology gives weddings by WDC a multi-dimensional vibe. Today, WDC boasts a clientele of 500+ and is not only known for what it brings to a wedding in design and décor but also the fact that it is the only wedding company in India that gives you everything under one roof; from the beginning to the end.

‘The Big Fat Indian Wedding’ was a term coined at one of the weddings that WDC designed and executed.

About Raging Tiger Events 

Launched in 2014, Raging Tiger Events Co. is the brainchild of Yogesh Mehta, Managing Director of Petrochem Middle East; and a patron of the arts. The team have organised over 500 events ranging from large concerts and theatre events, to more intimate curated events for connoisseurs of music, poetry and other art forms. The team comprises of experienced individuals with expertise in areas of event conceptualization and implementation.

About Dubai World Trade Centre

With a vision to make Dubai the world’s leading destination for all major exhibitions, conferences and events, DWTC has evolved from being the regional forerunner of the fast-growing MICE industry into a multi-dimensional business catalyst, focusing on Venues, Events and Real Estate Management. Complementary to the primary service offerings are a range of value-added services from media/advertising, engineering and technical consultation and wedding planning, security services and an award-winning hospitality portfolio.

China-focused fund Orchid invests in online wedding marketplace WedMeGood

Delhi-based WMG Tech Pvt. Ltd, which owns online marketplace for wedding management WedMeGood, said it has raised $2.6 million (Rs 17.8 crore at current exchange rate) in a Series A round of funding from Orchid Asia Group, an investment fund which primarily invests in China.

In a press note, the company said that Orchid is also an investor in Chinese travel firm Ctrip.com.

Anand Shahani, co-founder of WedMeGood, said the latest round of funding will be used for market expansion, product development, user acquisition and diversification of revenue streams.

Manoj Thakur, managing partner of Hornbill Capital and adviser to Orchid India, said, “We are excited about the Indian wedding industry, and see great synergies and learnings from Orchid’s investment in the market leader in China (which is Hunliji, a wedding planner application.”

Hunliji has raised close to $140 million so far, according to information available with Crunchbase, the startup database of tech publication TechCrunch.

In 2015, WedMeGood had secured Rs 2.7 crore ($407,200 then) in seed funding from Indian Angel Network (IAN).

WedMeGood

Founded in February 2014 by husband-wife duo Anand and Mehak Shahani, WedMeGood helps prospective couples to plan everything related to their wedding. The company claims to have more than more than 30,000 vendors  across 18 categories that include wedding venues, photographers, planners, cards, and videography.

Operational in all major cities like Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai, the startup offers its solutions through its Android and iOS mobile apps.

Mehak, a post-graduate from the Delhi School of Economics (DSE), worked as an analyst at American Express before co-founding this venture while Anand, an alumnus of XLRI-Jamshedpur, was a marketing manager with Abbott Nutrition. In 2011, Mehak had also founded Peachesandblush.com, a blog site for beauty product reviews.

Recent deals in wedding management space

April 2019: Flatpebble, an artificial intelligence-driven cataloguing platform for photographers and videographers, raised a bridge round of funding led by Indian Angel Network (IAN).
March  2019:  Online-to-offline venue booking platform VenueLook raised an undisclosed amount in its pre-Series A round from angel investors.
Marriage ceremony solutions portal The Wedding Brigade (TWB) raised $1 million (Rs 6.9 crore then) in a pre-Series A funding round led by early-stage investment firm Blume Ventures and Japan-based Akatsuki Entertainment Technology Fund

How to Get a Floor Plan Made for Your Wedding

A reception floor plan is one of the most important tools you'll create for your wedding day. This allows everyone on your vendor team to have a clear, finalized plan for what they should be doing during installation. Rather than send out something hand-drawn or out of scale, you'll want to rely on your vendors when it comes time to make this important document. Here's what you need to know.

 Who makes the floor plan?
Rental companies map out the vast majority of wedding floor plans, as they typically have an in-house staff person dedicated to using the appropriate software to create a to-scale model. Though, in some cases, this is a service that wedding planners and venues may offer as well, depending on their capabilities. If they're unable to provide a to-scale model, it's important to make sure that they've measured everything in advance and are confident all will fit in the space.


How is your floor plan designed?
A floor plan is typically created following a site visit with all vendors present. During this meeting, you'll make many decisions about the flow of your event and determine where much of your furniture and tenting will be placed. If you're working with multiple rental companies, it's usually the largest company or the company working on the tent that will work on the floor plan. You'll likely go through a few versions of the floor plan before settling on one that works well for your specific needs. For example, it may become apparent in laying it all out to scale that you need to use smaller round tables rather than rectangular tables to fit everything without feeling crowded. Or, as the wedding draws closer, you may need fewer tables and chairs than initially planned for. Your floor plan can always be edited accordingly.



Tips for executing the floor plan.
One of the reasons the rental company usually makes the floor plan is that they're often responsible for placing the furniture. This floor plan will serve as a guide for their delivery staff and it helps them to have a clear and concise map so they can work quickly and efficiently with the install.

Wedding plannner WedMeGood bags $2.6 Mn Series A round from Orchid India

Online wedding planning platform WedMeGood has picked up $2.6 million in Series A funding round led by Orchid India.

A brainchild of husband and wife duo Anand and Mehak Shahani, WedMeGood has a plan to expand into newer markets besides using the fund product development, user acquisition and increase the source of revenue.

Currently, it is present in cities like Bengaluru, Delhi, and Mumbai.

Launched in 2014, WedMeGood helps to hire wedding planners, top photographers, or even ideas and inspiration for a wedding.

Customers can compare the ratings and reviews, discover ideas, find vendors based on genuine user’s reviews and detailed product portfolios and shortlist contact their favourite vendors via app and web platform.

The platform is associated with over 5,000 vendors and connects over a million customers through its services. In September 2015, WedMeGood had secured Rs 2.7 crore in seed funding from Indian Angel Network (IAN).

In the online wedding planning segment, the startup competes with ShaadiSaga, Weddingplz, Weddingz.in, among several others.

Apart from the aforementioned players, UrbanClap had also launched wedding planning and related on-demand services in November 2017. Recently, online classifieds Sulekha.com also forayed into the wedding services and planning market.

Sophie Turner and Joe Jonas Just Made a Major Wedding Decision

Even though Sophie Turner and Joe Jonas’s exact wedding date and venue are under wraps, we trust that the Hollywood pair’s French nuptials this summer will be magical. According to The Game of Thrones actress, she has a secret advantage to thank for what will be a night to remember—her wedding planner. “Wedding planners are key,” she told Extra this week. While Turner admitted that she's nervous for the debut of her new X-Men film, "Dark Pheonix," she seems to be at ease having a planner take some tasks off her plate.
Every bride knows that holding someone’s hand through the wedding process is just as important as holding your soon-to-be spouse's hand at the end of an aisle. Joe and Sophie clearly took notes from their married family members. Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas hired Mumbai-based planners, Shaadi Squad, to create the perfect modern-meets-traditional wedding. Meanwhile, Kevin and Danielle Jonas hired a celebrity event planner, Roses-n-Lollipops, to create their fairy-tale wonderland.
According to Turner, this luxe bridal perk means “you don’t have to do anything.” But the 23-year-old is not the only one taking steps to ensure her dream day doesn’t fall through the cracks. Earlier this month, Jonas revealed to James Corden that his brothers’ weddings taught him what not to do on his big day. Unlike his brothers, he plans on keeping their ceremony on the down-low. The singer also divulged that a family sports competition will take place.
When Jonas proposed in April 2017 with a pear-shaped diamond ring, it gave us enough to talk about for the time being. But now we’re itching for more intimate details that reveal what their planner has in store. (It goes without saying that we’re equally invested in how Game of Thrones ends.) Will their wedding take place on the French Riviera? Will the Jonas Brothers drop a new album?

Eco-Friendly Wedding Decor Ideas for an Even More Meaningful Day

As someone in her 30s, I can confidently say there is no shortage of weddings to attend all spring, summer and fall. But when you realize that each one has the potential to produce up to 400 lbs of waste and 63 tons of CO2, you’ll want to leave the venue and go directly outside to hug a tree. And that’s just an average-sized wedding. For just one day.

The reality is that the majority of wedding waste comes from the  decor—everything from lighting to flowers can add up to a LOT of energy and waste. Thankfully, the eco-friendly movement is on the rise in the wedding industry, so there are many ways you can reduce your carbon footprint and still have the big day of your dreams.

We spoke with the experts—wedding planners, florists and venue operators—to help identify those key opportunities, both big and seemingly small, to minimize your wedding decor waste without sacrificing taste.

Start with hiring green vendors
The first step to reducing waste on your wedding day starts with the people who will be part of it from start to finish. When it comes to choosing wedding planners and vendors, first consider those who use green initiatives in their products and as part of their company policy.

For example, Crystal Adair-Benning, owner of highly acclaimed wedding and event design agency Distinct Occasions, starts the eco-friendly journey from the very first steps of planning. Striving to make her company as minimally wasteful as possible, Adair-Benning implements paperless and emission-reducing strategies. She uses, “online tools for couples and staff [and] video chats for meetings whenever possible,” while also limiting the use of excess packaging when it comes to food and event decor.

Your food vendors are also key to minimizing waste on the big day—from making arrangements for food leftovers to what goes into the cake itself. If your goal is to have a green gateau, ask your baker for zero-waste options. This will mean designing a cake that is entirely edible, which may require foregoing multi-tiered creations that require internal supports. Also ask if the bakery uses organic ingredients and can create edible cake decorations, as opposed to using plastic or metal flourishes that tend to get discarded.

Opt for an eco-chic venue

We know the setting for your big day has to be fire for the ‘gram (after all, if your wedding isn’t Insta-worthy, did you even get married?), but the wedding venue can also make the biggest impact on how environmentally friendly your event will be. Consider buildings that are LEED-certified with energy-efficient features, such as the popular Toronto wedding venue Wychwood Barns. This renovated heritage structure has been given the ultimate Mother Earth makeover and now uses water-conserving plumbing, geo-thermal HVAC systems, stormwater harvesting, energy-efficient lighting and 100% recycled sliding panels.

If you don’t have access to LEED-certified locations, there are still plenty of fabulous venues that offer eco-friendly decor options with the elevated look you desire. Plus, sometimes that look can do the work for you for free. For example, Nita Lake Lodge in Whistler, BC offers a stunning natural setting that doesn’t need a lot of dressing up to make an impact—far easier on the setup and on the wallet. The events team at the lodge also suggests eco-friendly decor ideas that complement the look and feel of the setting, such as rustic chic tables that don’t require linens, meaning you can save energy by avoiding laundry, too.

Bonus tip: Holding your ceremony and reception at the same venue not only saves your guests the hassle of getting from Point A to Point B, but also saves the environment from carbon dioxide emissions from the excess travel—win-win!

Get lit the right way

The lighting industry is no stranger to developing eco-friendly options and, thankfully, the designs are only getting better, so you can make sure your wedding is green and lit AF. Go ahead and ask venues if they use energy-efficient lighting, or go next level with solar lighting! And never, ever underestimate the power of candlelight to set a romantic mood. Just be sure to to use natural candles made of soy or beeswax and, if scented, done so with essential oils rather than synthetic chemicals.

When in doubt, rent it out

It seems like there are more and more wedding rental companies popping up every year because, #realtalk, why would you buy new for just one day? Wedding rental and design company, Whisteria Design, sources the majority of its items—like beautiful mix-and-match china plates and on-trend vintage rattan chairs—secondhand from antiques dealers and thrift shops. What’s so extra about this (in the absolute best way) is that it gives your wedding a unique look and feel, but also, as owner Carin Smolinkski says, gives back by supporting local businesses and charity stores. “Our items can be reused indefinitely, avoiding unnecessary waste,” says Smolinski.

Flex your green thumb

The rule of the green thumb—for gardeners and eco-conscious brides alike—is to stay local. This not only means using local blooms, but also working directly with local florists, as opposed to big suppliers, to eliminate excess packaging and shipping.

Also, jump on the trendy bandwagon with the #NoFloralFoam movement and ask for reusable and eco-friendly products like chicken wire, reusable buckets, water tubes and biodegradable bouquet wraps to keep your arrangements together instead.

But the number-one piece of advice the floral experts give? Be open-minded. Most florists find clients want something very specific, which may need to be imported, and don’t often want to consider local options. The arrangement pictured above, from Toronto-based Coriander Girl, features a majority of Canadian-grown plants including cafe-au-lait dahlias, white dahlias, black scabiosa, white lisianthus, white snowberry and forsythia greenery—and it looks freaking stunning!

Top your tables with personal touches

The DIY wedding trend only continues to grow with every new Pinterest board, and it’s becoming more and more common when it comes to centrepieces. Now, this doesn’t mean whittling your own wooden sculptures or hand-sculpting vases on a pottery wheel (unless it does, in which case, you’re my hero). Rather, it’s a simple way to add a unique and personalized touch to your wedding decor by using items you already own—like framed photographs, trinkets from your travels together, even items you saved from your first dates. These personal touches can help reduce the amount of waste produced from buying new items and, bonus, tend to be great conversation-starters for your guests.

However you decide to top your tables, there’s one thing to 100% avoid: plastic glitter and confetti. Pretty, sure, but these microplastics inevitably end up in our waterways and that’s definitely not chic.

Say thank you with meaningful favours

First of all, you don’t need to have wedding favours—let’s be honest, unless they provide some specific use for each and every guest, they’re likely be left or tossed. But if you’re still all about the thank-you takeaways, go for something universally useable and/or recyclable. Even better if it’s locally sourced! Think locally farmed honey, potted plants (hold the floral foam, please!), or natural handcrafted soaps.

The focus is on fun and the future, but planners stress the need for sensitivity for second weddings.

There are big weddings and small weddings, religious weddings and secular weddings. One wedding segment that is taking hold for many planners is the encore wedding—where one or both members of the couple have been married before.

“I have done many second and third weddings,” notes prominent Chicago wedding planner Frank Andonoplas, MBC, head of Frank Event Design. “And a few times for the same bride!”

Related: Big and Getting Bigger: Indian Weddings Grow Ever More Lavish

The portion of business made up by encore weddings varies widely from planner to planner, from only 5 percent to as much as 50 percent.

Also varying widely: the styles of encore weddings. “It all depends on the situation,” Andonoplas explains. If both members of the couple have been married before, the event is usually smaller, he says “as they did the ‘big wedding’ the first time. If it’s the bride’s first wedding and the groom is paying—i.e., the trophy wife—it’s usually huge. However, I’ve done a few over-the-top second weddings when both [members of the couple] were encore.”

Related: Boho Meets Soho: Kristin Banta Events Creates a Chic, Spiritual Wedding

PLANNER IS VALUED Encore weddings make up about 20 percent of her business, notes London-based planner Siobhan Craven-Robins. “I think that encore couples often opt for a planner,” she says, “as they remember how much work was involved the first time around!” Her encore weddings tend to be larger than first-time weddings, she finds: “Often the couple have more of a disposable income and have acquired a number of friends through their lives, which makes for a bigger guest list.”


Encore weddings also tend to involve older couples, which means “people with a more sophisticated palate,” says JoAnn Gregoli, head of Elegant Occasions by JoAnn Gregoli. Her firm has offices in New York, Los Angeles and Rome. As a result, she sees encore weddings offering “a more fine-dining experience,” followed by an after-party.

COUPLE COMES FIRST Longstanding traditions at first weddings—toasts, the couple’s first dance, and the cake-cutting—are also fixtures at encore weddings, planners say. But unlike first weddings, encore couples can create exactly the wedding they want.

“These clients are often not trying to please their parents,” says Tracie Domino, founder of Florida-based Tracie Domino Events, “and are doing what they want and are often paying themselves. They have a greater focus on the guest experience, and are spending more per person on somewhat smaller guest counts.”

Daniela Grafman, CSEP, partner in New York-based Vision Event Co., agrees. At encore weddings, “Often the guest counts are smaller but budgets are the same,” she says, with encore couples “spending more on the venue/food and experiential aspect—for example, entertainment vs. decor. Encore weddings generally treat the wedding as a reunion for family and friends, and really focus on the big picture elements of an event.”

CHILDREN’S BIG ROLE Probably the biggest difference between first and encore weddings is the role of children. For the previously wed, their children can do anything from serve as an attendant, walk their parent down the aisle and offer a toast, to take them for a turn on the dance floor.

Leading planner Joyce Scardina Becker, founder of San Francisco-based Events of Distinction, urges planners to be conscious of the potential impact of an encore wedding on the teenagers and young children of the couple. “I would recommend that all parents involved properly prepare their children for the day, and perhaps seek therapy when necessary,” she says. “On two separate occasions at weddings where I was the wedding planner, I had to console a child--both were young boys--whose mothers were remarrying.”


Indeed, planners stress the need for special sensitivity with encore weddings preceded by a nasty divorce or death of a first spouse.

“I have found it more important in encore weddings to understand the past experiences of the couple to be able to give them a wedding unique to them,” says Gwen Helbush, head of Newark, Calif.-based Where to Start, “honoring the past where appropriate, but focusing primarily on the future.”

From the Ambanis to ‘Deepveer’: Lifting the veil on celeb weddings

We love to see pictures of celebrity weddings — such as the spectacular celebrations hosted by business magnate Mukesh Ambani in Mumbai for his son Akash Ambani’s wedding — which have redefined the idea of the big fat Indian wedding; and the small, intimate nuptials of Bollywood stars Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh in Italy.

But we cannot even imagine the planning and work that is required to organise such mega events and destination weddings.

Vandana Mohan, founder of The Wedding Design Company (WDC), who designed both the Ambani and Padukone-Singh weddings, was in Dubai recently to attend the Destination Wedding Planners Congress (DWPC) organised by QnA International at Atlantis The Palm.

While respecting the privacy of her celebrity clients, she agreed to give us a behind-the-scenes look at how high-profile dream weddings are organised.


“When I took on the Ambani wedding I thought I would have to deal with the bureaucratic systems of a big corporation, but I was amazed to see that Mukesh and Nita Ambani were both personally involved in every stage of the process, even though their busy schedules meant that our meetings often started late evening and went on till 4am. Nita Ambani is full of creative ideas and she has a team that is used to organising big events regularly.

The Ambani family and her team were very open, welcoming and hospitable, which made our work easier and more enjoyable. The most challenging part of this wedding was the scale of the event and the best part was that I got the opportunity to work with and learn from leading experts in various fields,” Mohan says.

Explaining her design process, Mohan says that she believes in setting new trends and never looks back at what has been done before. She uses pictures, mood boards and 3-D models to articulate her ideas and to understand what her clients have visualised.

For her son’s wedding Nita Ambani wanted to recreate the sacred historic city of Vrindavan, (where Krishna grew up) but in a modern version set amid the rolling hills of Salzburg and the most beautiful gardens. To bring this dream alive, Mohan worked with various experts ranging from architects and local artisans to floral designers from the US and Italy who created rolling hills, vibrant gardens, and magnificent floral sculptures of peacocks and elephants, and a French company that designed waterfalls.

Her core team of 89 worked with over two and half thousand people on the project and a back-end staff of 12,000 people. Besides handling the logistics of so many different teams working together, Mohan also had the challenge of managing a huge venue.


“The wedding venue was a convention hall that was so huge that I clocked an average of 22,000 on my Fitbit walking around it every day. For the first two functions there were 3000 guests and for the reception there were 12,000 guests.

"While Nita Ambani was involved in every detail of the design and space management, Mukesh Ambani was involved in every aspect of designing the seating and ensured that every seat was a VIP seat with a good view of the stage.

"During the reception the Ambani family stood on the stage for six and half hours to greet every guest, with 40 guests coming on the stage every minute. Since guests had to wait for over four hours to get on the stage, we made sure that they were served snacks and refreshments, kept entertained and provided chairs for them to rest without losing their place in the queue,” Mohan says.

Mega wedding
Surprisingly, while the mega Ambani wedding took less than two months to organise, Mohan spent nine months on the Padukone-Singh wedding.

She began by finding the perfect venue on Lake Como in Italy that was accessible only by boat and provided privacy, a beautiful ambience and space for their hundred guests.

Besides designing the venue and arranging a Konkani and a Sindhi style wedding ceremony, she also set up an Indian kitchen at the venue with Konkani, Sindhi and other chefs flown in from India and the UK.

“Destination weddings have their own challenges, but they are always fun. Both the stars wanted a private wedding where they could relax and enjoy themselves away from the media glare, so we had to be careful to keep the venue and event secret.

"Deepika was totally involved in the planning and while we worried about the weather and made Plan B in case of rain, she always thought positively and assured me that the weather would be perfect, which it was. It was lovely to see them relaxed and being themselves — two young people, madly in love and happy to share their special day with their near and dear ones,” she says.

Over the last 28 years, Mohan has become well-known for organising destination weddings at exotic locations across the world, ranging from Florence, Ibiza and St. Moritz to historic forts and palaces in India.

She believes Dubai is a great destination for Indian weddings and is excited that WDC’s exclusive representative in the UAE, Raging Tiger Events has recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Dubai’s leading event organiser Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC), through its experiential arm DXB Live.

“We want to promote Dubai as the most preferred wedding destination for Indians, whether they live in India, the UAE or elsewhere. We believe that combining our experience with the expertise, in-depth local knowledge and vast network of DXB Live, and Raging Tiger Events, will help us to achieve this.

"I am amazed at the multicultural community here and see Dubai as a stepping stone to the rest of the world. I would love to design destination weddings for Asians and other nationalities living in Dubai, and I also have many new ideas to offer DXB Live’s discerning Emirati clients,” Mohan says.

Another Indian wedding designer who has been in the news recently is Devika Narain, who designed the discreet, elegant wedding of Bollywood star Anushka Sharma and cricketer Virat Kohli in Italy last year. She was also in Dubai for the DWPC and shed some light on the planning process behind bespoke Indian weddings.

“I trained to be a journalist and interned with CNN before I decided to be a wedding planner, and my training comes in handy while doing the research for the personalised weddings I design. After working for a wedding planner for four years, I decided to start Devika Narain & Co because I wanted to change the way we did weddings. I only do ten weddings a year and spend a lot of time getting to know the bride and groom to design an event that truly reflects their personality,” Narain says.

She takes pride in the fact that she works with local artisans to create uniquely Indian spaces. “Indians used to be highly influenced by the images of western weddings they saw on Pinterest and most brides wanted us to copy those. But I wanted to create something that was authentically Indian. I do not believe in following trends because I think a wedding must be classic, timeless and specific to the couple, and I am fortunate to have clients that appreciate my ideas and aesthetic,” she says.

Although a wedding planner’s job involves dealing with many pressures and unexpected situations, Narain claims to be an eternal optimist.

“I have had my share of disasters such as the pier at a beach resort in Thailand where the wedding was to be held being blown away by a cyclone hours before the ceremony; a fire breaking out in the kitchen just as the wedding procession arrived; and a bride misplacing her wedding outfit just before the ceremony. But we have Plans B to Z for everything and always manage to find a suitable solution,” she says.

Narain believes that finding a good venue is half the battle won, although she has accepted the challenge of venues such as a stadium and a parking lot. She loved the beautiful villa in Italy that Kohli and Sharma found for their wedding and enjoyed designing the space. She organised Indian chefs from London along with local Italian chefs to cater to the guests.

They managed to keep it a secret and everyone had a great time because no cell-phones were allowed. She thinks it is cute that people wanted to discuss Virat’s bright socks after the wedding images were revealed and refuses to confirm or deny whether the spiritually inclined couple presented their guests with a book of Sufi poems or say anything else about that wedding — and not just because of the non-disclosure agreement she has signed.

“We respect the privacy of all our clients, and I want people to appreciate what I do rather than who I do it for. When someone trusts me to deliver on the most important day of their life, I want to make sure that they feel happy and always look back on the day with joy and contentment,” she says.

An Indian TV Show Points the Way for a New Generation

If there’s one thing Indians know how to do, it’s weddings.

In Bollywood and real-life, the pomp of upper-class ceremonies — including the age-old traditions, battling egos and patriarchal powers at play — has captivated audiences across the globe. And yet India, on pace to be the youngest nation in the world by population, is also grappling with feminism and freedoms of a new age. Activism has brought the #MeToo movement to the subcontinent and toppled archaic colonial-era laws like Section 377, an article under the Indian constitution that outlawed gay sex. It’s this paradox that Amazon Prime India has taken on in its newest original series, “Made in Heaven.”

Centered on Karan (Arjun Mathur) and Tara (Sobhita Dhulipala), two friends who run a wedding-planning business, the show takes on a wide array of issues that a burgeoning generation of South Asians is facing, including class, homophobia and sexual harassment. At the helm are three acclaimed Bollywood directors and screenwriters, who also happen to be women: Zoya Akhtar (“Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara”), Reema Kagti (“Gold”), and Alankrita Shrivastava (“Lipstick Under My Burkha”). The show, fueled by their acumen for strong storytelling and creating multidimensional characters, wrestles with its matters in a way that is sobering and — despite its subjects — isn’t dressed up with sequins and melodrama.

In one episode, a couple in their 60s marry against their children’s wishes; in another, an Indian man based in America holds a pageant to find an Indian wife. The show sets up relatable pairings and attempts to underscore the country’s shifting social awareness.

It’s this directness that makes “Made in Heaven” so appealing — whereas Bollywood might gloss over these uncomfortable truths, a streaming medium, and its freedoms from a censor board and stifling box office numbers, unshackles the creators.

The conflicts between tradition and cultural change also play out in the protagonists’ personal lives, and the show is not afraid to make its audience uncomfortable, especially when it forces characters to toe the line between being an insider or outsider. Though aware of the need to stand up for the powerless and voiceless, Tara and Karan also end up becoming complicit in their own silencing.

Weddings serve as the backdrop, but the show isn’t dressed up with sequins and melodrama.
Credit

Tara, for instance, regularly advocates for the rights of her employees, as well as her women clients to give them the weddings they desire, even when it goes against their families’ demands.

Yet at home, she plays second fiddle to her husband, Adil (Jim Sarbh), a privileged, wealthy man dismissive of her middle-class roots. Through their relationship, the show makes several points about classism — such as the social exclusivity among elites and how other classes may perceive their lifestyle. For example, while rumors of being a golddigger trail Tara, her desire for upward mobility is neither about her husband’s money nor true love. She grapples with her desire to fit in among the elite, her finishing school education and her traditional values. And in her marriage, she realizes it’s not as fulfilling as she thought it would be.

In Karan’s journey, the creators of the show finally bring to mainstream Indian media a depiction of a cisgender gay man that isn’t a bundle of stereotypes. Karan’s internalized homophobia is portrayed realistically and with nuance — in a flashback, he outs a fellow classmate as a teenager to keep his own truth a secret and is pushed further into the closet by his mother when she catches him getting intimate with another man and beats him. As an adult, he is outed and jailed under Section 377. The police harassment he endures while in prison forces him to reckon with his past; it gives him the strength to apologize to the classmate years later and stand up to his family.

Tired of being ashamed of his identity for so long, Karan decides to file a public lawsuit against the law. Karan is then hailed as both a hero by power-hungry politicians eager to use him as a pawn and a disgrace by his mother. Armed with acceptance from his father and brother, Karan begins a long-awaited journey toward self-acceptance and fights for others like him. This duality — a sense of pride in activism alongside the fear of retribution from family and loved ones — has long played out for L.G.B.T. Indians.

Even while “Made in Heaven” breaks barriers for streaming originals, it also occasionally falters. The show falls into its own traps — it’s suggested that because Tara’s marriage began as a workplace affair that her husband’s current affair is justified; Karan’s bullying of his gay classmate may or may not justify the egregious acts of brutality he faces from a repressed gay landlord. At times the show seems to use its main characters only to make a point about the cyclical nature of trauma and karma.

Still, the series is part of a small but growing contingent of progressive and daring shows tapping into a corner of the Indian market that has largely been ignored. Many of them are from global streaming services: Netflix has committed to a wide range of original content from the subcontinent, including “Sacred Games,” its first big budget, polylingual original series out of India. And Amazon announced six new originals in the pipeline from India at TCA in February. (Not all of it hits the mark: “Four More Shots,” another recent series that preceded “Made in Heaven,” tries, but fails, to comment smartly on feminist tropes.)

Some domestic services seem to be taking note. The Indian entertainment conglomerate Hotstar (which is owned by 21st Century Fox) has pulled the plug on its on-air channels (such as Star Plus) in the United States, making its on-air shows from India streaming-only in a prime global market. It has announced its first slate of original shows, including an adaptation of BBC’s “The Office” and “Criminal Justice.”

Other local big-name production houses, like Zee and Eros, are also stepping up their originals on their streaming platforms — while Zee5 has yet to launch globally, ErosNow recently launched its own shows (such as “Metro Park,” based on an Indian family living in New Jersey) in recent months to little fanfare. (They perhaps have not yet figured out how to balance a lack of production value with the ability to make the kinds of compelling stories that global audiences are finding on Netflix and Amazon.)

“Made in Heaven” and its writers depict an increased consciousness of India’s social dilemmas, and give us glimpses of what it might look like to face them. The response to the show — in its first season, it has received critical acclaim (some reviews called it possibly the country’s, or at least Amazon’s, best original series ever, while fans hailed its progressive nature on Twitter) — suggests that perhaps more shows like it can continue to push the boundaries even further.

Made In Heaven: What one of India's top wedding planners thinks of the show's depiction of the business

The new Reema Kagti-Zoya Akhtar Amazon prime Original — Made In Heaven — has proven to be quite the binge-watch, winning praise moreover for its tackling of hypocritical Indian social mores, depiction of homosexuality, and pitch-perfect casting, among other things.

But what about the Indian wedding planning business itself? Made In Heaven's ensemble cast comprises many well-etched characters from different walks of life, but at the story's core are two young, up-and-coming wedding planners — Tara (Sobhita Dhulipala) and Karan (Arjun Mathur) — who run the titular agency in Delhi.

Tara and Karan are different from two other wedding planners of our pop culture past, Band Baaja Baaraat's Bittoo and Shruti. Bittoo and Shruti were brash, and the Delhi they inhabited is a world removed from the one Made In Heaven caters to. If the nitty-gritty of wedding planning took a backseat to exploring Bittoo and Shruti's chemistry in Band Baaja..., then in Made In Heaven, the business is very much at the forefront. All of the highs and lows associated with planning a big, fat Indian wedding can and do crop up, and our protagonists must deal with them.

So Tara and Karan must not only get the decor, arrangements and catering right for their uber rich clients, they must also (on occasion) run background checks, communicate dowry demands, convince recalcitrant children to attend a parent's nuptials, smooth away the results of a night of infidelity, deal with a case of sexual harassment, save one bride while getting another "married" to a tree — all this while fighting off cut-throat competition from a much more established rival firm, and keeping their business in the green. (We're not even going to get into their personal lives.)

The weddings that Tara and Karan plan are extravagant, and the behind-the-scenes drama enlightening — but how much of it is based in truth?

What does planning the weddings of the rich and famous entail? Tina Tharwani and Saurabh Malhotra of Shaadi Squad are uniquely placed to answer that question.

Along with their partner Manoj Mittra, Tina and Saurabh helped put together one of the biggest celebrity weddings of 2017 — the Virat Kohli-Anushka Sharma nuptials in Tuscany. Not only was the Kohli-Sharma wedding the last word in luxury (it was held at the Borgo Finocchieto retreat, where a week's stay costs just under Rs 1 crore) it was also conducted in utmost secrecy, with not a word of the event being leaked to the world at large until after the couple posted the first images of themselves as bride and groom on their social media handles. "The people responsible for making the most memorable occasion of our lives peaceful and beyond beautiful — our lovely wedding planners," Kohli captioned a picture of himself and Anushka with the Shaadi Squad team.

Tina and Saurabh are quick to assert that Shaadi Squad hasn't had to deal with any untoward incidents a la Tara and Karan in Made In Heaven. “Small hiccoughs here and there are not uncommon, but there’s never been any glaringly awful situation ever!” Tina says.

Instead, over the course of their work, they've had a chance to be part of some truly heartwarming occasions. “The wedding planning business is emotional in its essence, and more often than not, there is this very endearing bond created between us and our clients,” Tina tells us. “Often it starts to seem as though we are planning our own family wedding! From dancing along with the baraat to being teary-eyed during the bidaai — every aspect of the wedding is a memorable experience for all parties involved.”

Read on Firstpost: India's leading wedding planners reveal what it takes to pull off a celebrity do

While the wonderfully festive atmosphere of an Indian wedding — along with its attendant rituals and family involvement — makes these events distinctive, it also throws up certain challenges for those in the business of planning them. Saurabh and Tina say that the Shaadi Squad team’s role often goes beyond that of being event managers to “people and expectation managers”. At the same time, as planners, they revel in the fact that the scale of Indian weddings and their informal, familial air make for such an unparalleled experience.

Indian weddings, Tina and Saurabh say, have come a long way in the time that they’ve been in the business — both in terms of scale as well as expression. “While the ‘big, fat Indian wedding’ megatrend isn’t going to cease, people are now gradually shifting towards smaller and more intimate affairs. The expression has become very personal in nature these days,” says Saurabh. Tina adds that couples and their families now desire “a distinctive wedding that reflects the bond shared by them, instead of opting for the same set of ceremonies and rituals that have been traditionally followed”. “People now prefer combining weddings with holidays, inviting only immediate family and close friends to an exotic destination, and holding a reception for all the other guests once they are back home," she says. "With such shifts, weddings in India are turning into an intimate, memorable experiences rather than larger-than-life ones.”

Wedding planners prepare Plan B

Ranchi: This summer, the wedding season will clash with Lok Sabha elections, spurring wedding planners across the state capital to prepare contingency plans. There are nine wedding dates between April 16 and April 30, and 12 wedding dates in the month of May.

“The major problem will be in ensuring hassle-free commute for the guests. Usually, wedding parties are ferried in big vehicles like buses, but due to the elections, we are offering our clients the option of using smaller cars. We have also planned to use tempos to transport materials such as decorative items,” Vikas Agarwal of Shubh Labh Creations, a Ranchi-based wedding planning group, said.

With political leaders on the move to attend rallies and gatherings, booking hotel rooms will also be a challenge. “But no one will cancel their weddings for the polls. If the planning is done well, there would not be any hiccup,” said Shubham Gupta of Vivaah.

With everyone from flower arrangers to labourers in demand, both at the weddings and political rallies, the charges are expected to shoot up in the coming weeks.

Nasif Ahmed, owner of Ranchi-based A&N Signature wedding, has his plan ready. “Labourers will be difficult to get and the work we usually complete in a day may take longer. This is the reason we will begin preparing for the weddings, a few days in advance. The extra few days will give us the opportunity to be ready on time,” Ahmed said.

Will Priyanka Chopra not play wedding planner for Joe Jonas and Game of Thrones star Sophie Turner?

Reports suggest that Priyanka Chopra could be playing wedding planner for brother-in-law Joe Jonas’ summer wedding with fiance and Game of Thrones star Sophie Turner – details inside.

After Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas’ fairytale wedding last year, it is time for Nick’s brother Joe Jonas’wedding to fiance and Game of Thrones star Sophie Turner. Earlier, during the promotions of the latest Jonas Brothers’ song Sucker, Joe had revealed on The Late Late Show with James Corden, Joe had revealed that he will get married in summer 2019.

“We’re getting married this year. We’re going to have a summer wedding. We’re going to have a flag rugby game at the wedding and a flag football game.” – Joe Jonas had told James Corden. A few weeks back, reports were abuzz that none other than the Bollywood-turned-Hollywood diva, Priyanka Chopra will be the one doing wedding planning for Joe and Sophie’s summer wedding.

“Priyanka is doing this as a favor to Sophie and Joe, but also because she loves weddings. Sophie is thrilled because she loved how Priyanka planned her wedding to Nick in December. Priyanka has an army of assistants making calls and booking appointments,” a source had said, as reported by Pinkvilla.

However, these sources, rumours and reports have been debunked by Priyanka Chopra’s spokesperson. According to a report in Gossip Cop, her spokesperson has rubbished the reports that suggest PeeCee is planning her brother-in-law’s wedding single-handedly. Well, that is certainly a little heart-breaking considering we saw Nick and Priyanka’s wedding last year and it was such a beautiful one.

Priyanka Chopra had tied the knot with American singer and songwriter Nick Jonas on December 1 and 2 in a Christian and then an Hindu wedding respectively. Their wedding celebrations were followed by a series of wedding reception parties. The first one was held in Delhi, which was attended even by the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi. Following that, they had a number of reception parties in Mumbai, one of which was for the Bollywood celebs.

The who’s who of Bollywood had turned up for Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas’ wedding reception including the likes of Alia Bhatt, Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh along with several others. In fact, even Salman Khan had attended the reception party.

Wedding Planners Reveal Their Most Challenging Requests From Couples, & You'll Cringe

As the temperatures outside being to rise, flowers start to bloom, and the snow melts away, the greatest time of the year is upon us: It's wedding season, y'all! A time of year that's filled with gorgeous floral arrangements, bad DJs, and all the cake you can dream of. It's a wonderful time, but for those in the wedding industry, it can also be v stressful, especially when working with couples who are — how can I put this — demanding. OK, that's harsh, but hearing about these wedding planners' most challenging requests from couples might just have you gasping out loud.


Let me be clear: When it's your wedding day, you should be able to celebrate on your own terms. But there's something to be said about following your heart, while still remaining respectful of those who work so hard to make your special dream a reality. From getting upset at pregnant bridesmaids, to making outrageous demands from guests, there are some lines are difficult to uncross. .

I asked a few wedding planners about the most outlandish, cringe-worthy request they've ever gotten, and trust me, their responses were absolutely jaw-dropping. These wedding planners have seen it all.

1. THEY KNOW HOW TO HAVE FUN!

My most cringeworthy request from a couple occurred a few years ago. I had a couple who requested a stripper pole to be installed at the reception venue. I initially thought that it was a joke, but as we neared their date it became obvious that they were serious! The bride had a routine she wanted to perform for her new husband and felt that some guests would enjoy as well.
— Apryl D. Roberts, Memorable Events by Apryl.


2. MAYBE THE DEAD ANIMALS WOULD HAVE ACTUALLY BEEN BETTER?
o get her to just use white clothes to cover them. While it wasn't a look that we loved, we did our best to set up other items in front of the covered displays to take away from the fact that 88% of the room was now had white sheets over glass display boxes. We set up a photobooth in front of one, we moved the DJ in front of some as well, cake and so forth. It was the best thing to do considering the situation we were in.
3. THAT'S... AWKWARD.
I've had a bride ask us to ask the best man to leave a wedding. It was our understanding that the bride and best man never got along and the bride had learned the day of the wedding about the bachelor party that had taken place months earlier. She was demanding that he and his parents would be asked to leave. It was a very difficult thing to have to deal with and we did have to address this with the best man, and the groom. After a lot of time spent talking to the bride, assuring her that the day was about her and her groom and that while we understood why she was upset, asking him and his parents to leave before the ceremony would cause more questions and take the focus away from the ceremony.
For the ceremony, we ended up having the wedding party sit down in the first row instead of stand up at the alter, we gave the rings to the Priest, and we politely moved his seat during the reception to a different part of the room and he and the maid of honor did their speech together. It could have all gone very south very quickly but thankfully we had a great Best Man and very understanding one. As an experienced wedding planner, I've learned over the years that sometimes addressing the issue in such a grand fashion can be more destructive once everyone is already there ready to go.
— Kia Martinson, owner of ESTOccasions in West Hartford, Conn.


4. THIS SOUNDS LIKE A NIGHTMARE.
Probably the biggest challenge was finding out the day before the event, the venue sustained a major pipe leak, which resulted in a facility that could not be used to accommodate the reception. To this end, the day before the event, our entire team called every venue possible that could accommodate this event to see if space was available. We were also looking at options within the same general area — at least within a five-mile radius as not to cause any major inconveniences for the guests.
One other problem is the client had already contracted food and beverage service through a caterer and it's obvious that a restaurant and many country clubs provide their own food and beverage operation. Everybody on our team made tons of calls, including the caterer — to find another facility. We did! The logistics were completely changed for the reception and re-worked a lot of the decor to fit within the new space. Guests were notified by the client's bridal party via text of the venue change. Our suppliers were called as soon as possible of the venue change.
The biggest impact was equipment rentals, however, everyone acted as a team player and were professional. It went without saying that we worked tirelessly overnight to pull a rabbit out of a hat. The reception was a success and the client was extremely appreciative. I'm not sure how the dust was settled between the client and the original venue, however, they should have received a full refund to help offset the cost for the new reception venue.
— Greg Jenkins, Bravo Productions.

Weddings are happy occasions, but sometimes, in the heat of the moment, the stress of it all can turn the day into a total blur. Thankfully, these wedding planners handled their demanding clients with beauty and grace. But seriously, I could never.